Exploring the Constitutive relation between human language, culture and thought

I was tasked to explore on how religious culture affects language and vice versa and also in editing the introduction. Previously during lessons, we have learnt about theories and examples of Sapir Whorf Hypothesis, kick-starting my understanding of the relationship between language, culture&thought. I was aware that language has influence over culture&thought. However, I do not believe that it has absolute control on how we think or act.

However, I realised that it was much more difficult than expected to find evidence to support my claim that language affects culture and thought. For example, we wanted to talk about how “Oh my God” seems to trivialise and normalise the word “God”, from being a higher being to being used frequently in our expressions. However, we discovered that many people use the word “Oh my God” without thinking too much into it. Hence, in this case, language does not have a significant impact on religion.

Thus, from this Wiki, it reaffirms our stand of how language does not fully controls how we think and act. Sometimes it could just be a remark with no hidden meaning or agenda.

My contribution was mainly in the introduction, music and reference sections. Overall, it has been a really enjoyable experience working with my group mates as I have gained many insights I would otherwise not have thought of. For instance, in the arts, I’ve learnt that language can affect the personification of art. Where the grammatical gender of a language will decide which gender will be used to represent a theme. This highlight how language does influence subtle things in our everyday life

For instance, I’ve learnt that language can affect the personification of art. The presence of grammatical gender in a language will decide which gender will be used to represent a theme. I will teach my future students to see the relevance between what they learn in class and how it can be observed in their everyday life.

Another concept that i will teach my future students is the how Singlish is an important part of our culture and how it can influence our thoughts of our relationship with other people. Its main purpose is to create social bonds between people. By helping students see this relationship, they will be able to better understand and appreciate their own culture.

I did the part on art and also contributed to the editing process of this wiki page. From this, I have definitely gained a greater understanding of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. I had to put into practice what I have learnt about the relationship between language and culture and analyse several examples.

In our wiki, different forms of culture were analysed. It was interesting to see how this could be applied greatly to so many areas of our lives. However, one example that really struck me was the relationship between the culture and language in Singapore. This allowed me to better appreciate how important the different cultures across different races are in influencing the language Singaporeans speak . Without them, this language known as ‘Singlish’ would not be a form of communication that makes us uniquely Singapore.

Moreover, I learnt how Singlish can create a common identity among the different races in Singapore and reduce the social distance between people,. It made me realise that Singlish plays an essential role to bring people from different backgrounds together. This is something that should not be taken for granted but instead be something I am proud of.

For this group project, I wrote the sections on language and the Digital and Singapore cultures. In the editing phase, I helped to edit the introduction and music sections. I also helped to coordinate group meetings and discussions.

In the past, I viewed language merely as a tool for communication and that culture affects language. This was an assumption that arose from a lack of critical observation and analysis of language use around me. However, through this project, I became more acutely aware of the influence of language on culture/thought and in constructing realities. I learnt that language can influence how information is organized and shared, how people perceive social norms, how beliefs can be challenged and how a sense of identity can be created.

Through this exercise of interrogating texts, both spoken and written, I also learnt to practise critical multimodal literacy in analysing materials such as videos, songs, audio conversations and social media posts.

I see language use as a social activity. It plays a big role in displaying power and resistance in all cultures. As educators, we need to advocate responsible language use and provide platforms through dialogic education for our students to practise that.